For those of you who dont know me I work for Walmart in the TLE department. Last week I had my first screw up. Not really my fault though, more of a defective equipment deal.

Most of you know walmart has an oil extractor machine that goes through the oil dipstick that sucks up the old oil. Anyway the oil extractor has different end pieces that are plastic looking straws with a metal rod going through it so its straight.

So the vehicle I was working on was a 2013 F-150 with the 5.0. We almost never use the machine unless the drain plug on a car is severely damaged or a very large truck. (This truck had an almost 1.5FT of a bumper guard on the front and was a long bed truck. They do not fit on the bay.

So I took it into the bay with the oil extractor. I put the plastic straw down the dipstick hole. The second I did that it just did'nt feel right. I tried to take it out but it would not budge. Well after fighting with it, it broke in half. Half of it in the oil dip stick. Told my boss, he came out. Put some tape over the dipstick hole so oil could not go out while in drive. Gave the guy a free oil change, and told him the customer to take it to the dealership and we would pay the bill.

Side note, had to drain the oil the old fashion way of opening up the drain plug. Laziness really didn't work out on this one.

I just would like the put out there. Out of the thousands of cars I have worked on this is my first screw up. If you can even call it my screw up. More of Walmarts fault. Not only that, but we owned up too it. Most of the time its a "preexisting condition" that was done at a different shop that they try to blame on us. that somehow we did. Cost Walmart $600 for that one.

Don't get me wrong. Walmart has a TON of jackasses that work for them. Most of them are good, a few bad apples that spoil the bunch. I feel TERRIBLE when a car gets screwed up under me. Thought I would share this, I feel terrible at the same time but proud of how walmart handled it.

Talk to the boss about it and see how he feels. My opinion is that you owned up to it, the company owned up to it, and notified the customer. The best thing is to have the boss keep contacting the customer and see them through the problem.

Talk to the boss about it and see how he feels. My opinion is that you owned up to it, the company owned up to it, and notified the customer. The best thing is to have the boss keep contacting the customer and see them through the problem.

He told me he "it happens, not your fault". The customer came into today with the bill. We will be paying for it. Too many Walmart horror stories, not enough of the "ones" that you never hear about.

I work in IT, and we run into screwups now and then. The worst thing you can do is screw up, then not admit it and/or try to cover up the problem. It will have to be fixed sooner or later, and the guy(s) that have to come behind and fix it will be [censored] off because it wasted time and money. People that fail to own up to the problem, or try to cover up the problem; they are dealt with harshly.

Car mechanics, quick lubes and techs: you guys might have a different "corporate culture" then what we have in software engineering or IT, so take this with a grain of salt: If we caused a self-inflicted problem, then we would personally analyze it, describe the root cause and document a workaround or fix. Sort of like a TSB to help other techs prevent the problem. This may or may not be acceptable in your shop, but simply showing the faulty part at lunchtime and educating your peers on not making that same mistake might be good politics. Check with the boss first though.